Originally Posted by
RDJ
...Spurred by the fact that my THJR has been put off again, thanks Covinda.
Knowing that a change from two wheels to three was in the wind, I've previously ridden trikes so the handling especially steering was not a total surprise.
(Late model) Harley Triglide.
Interesting (from my perspective) first impressions
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Despite being a V-twin, its total weight was within 50lb of my 350ci V8. Moving it without the engine, you could tell.
The reverse gear worked extremely well and I could see myself getting quite lazy using it.
Probably - almost certainly - the most comfortable seat I've ever sat on, first. For quite a few years I have been having seats retrofitted with gel etc, but this one won't / wouldn't need it.
Height is good, especially with a tricky hip. Quite easy to get on and off, and sitting position settles comfortably aligned to foot and hand controls without any adjustments (maybe pure luck).
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Bike was not "prewarmed" but started easily and idled smoothly. Quite low mileage so the gear shifts are still requiring effort, but that I've seen with so many bikes I can't count. Conversely, the gear shifts are solid, separate, and thunky not clunky so no missed changes.
A very stable platform and once warmed up, eager to boot it in a straight line with the owner's permission... On the local curves of course the anticipated understeer. Takes a fair amount of arm strength to keep muscling it through but the whole thing about the trike is you don't need lower body strength for stability at any time. Horses for courses. (And the other big advantage of a trike: major luggage capacity. No bike other than the V8s can match this for capacity).
A fair amount of grunt, but with a feeling of more to come. The owner reckons he could get the front wheel "real light" with adding acceleration fast; but it was a test ride, not a stress test so I didn't go anywhere near there.
To slow it down, the brakes are truly excellent. Coupled with ABS, they're probably the best brakes of any bike (and I do consider trike still a bike) I've ever ridden, including Rewaco and Goldwing (trikes).
And hey, it actually has a working / usable parking brake! That is a first for me (the V8s also had a parking brake but it has a major tendency to stick so I literally never used it).
The suspension was set up for somebody much lighter and obviously I wasn't going to fiddle with it, but I think it has decent adjustments.
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Overall impression
Nicely engineered, carefully put together, very comfortable, and quite a few touches like the parking brake, reverse gear, and luggage space that would make it really easy to get a lot of touring road time.
Drawback:
Price. Ye gods and little fishes. The price. I'm not saying it's not worth the money, but you have to have the money.
(I forgot but should have checked with the owner the real-time mileage with a full tank. Also I forgot to test the speedo against my Garmin GPS, but I'd expect it would slightly under-read like just about every other vehicle anyway).
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